Richard Morgan Fliehr, known as Ric Flair, is a very famous American retired professional wrestler and professional wrestling manager signed to WWE. He is widely known as the "Nature Boy". During his 40 years career, he ha played in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), World Wrestling Federation (WWF, Later WWE) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).

Famous For

An American retired professional wrestler and professional wrestling manager signed to WWE.

Being a 16 times World Champion.

Source: @ricflairnatureboy

Early Life of Ric Flair

Ric Flair was born in Memphis, Tennessee with the Pisces birth sign. He is American by nationality and belongs to white ethnicity. His birth name is widely believed to be Fred Phillips, although on different documents he is also credited as Fred Demaree or Stewart, while his biological parents were Luther and Olive Phillips. His other names by which he is also known to include Richard Morgan Fliehr, Fred Phillips, Fred Demaree, and Stewart. He is also nicknamed The Nature Boy.

Later, He was adopted by Richard Reid Fliehr (1918-2000) and his wife Kathleen Kinsmiller Fliehr (1918-2003) who then raised him up in Edina, Minnesota where he attended Wayland Academy located in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. It was while in school that he developed an interest in wrestling and particularly participated in Interscholastic wrestling in addition to playing football and running track.

After ninth grade, he attended Wayland Academy in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin for four years, during which time he participated in interscholastic wrestling, football, and track. After high school, Ric Flair got admitted to the University of Minnesota on a football scholarship but dropped after his freshman year to pursue a career as a wrestler. He was already an amateur wrestler before entering college and following his dropping out, the lad began working as a bouncer in a club.

Career and Achievements of Ric Flair

In 1971, Richard Morgan Fliehr joined Gagne's wrestling camp which was set-up at Gagne’s barn outside Minneapolis. He trained along with Gagne’s son Greg Gagne, Jim Brunzell, The Iron Sheik and Ken Patera.

He took up the ring name ‘Ric Flair’ and had his first match against George "Scrap Iron" Gadaski in December 1972 in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. The match ended up in a 10-minute draw.

Flair quit AWA and joined the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in 1974. He bagged his first singles title on February 8, 1975, after he beat Paul Jones for the NWA Mid-Atlantic TV Championship.

On October 4, 1975, Flair along with Johnny Valentine " Mr. Wrestling I" Tim Woods, Bob Bruggers, and promoter David Crockett boarded a plane which crashed in Wilmington, North Carolina. The crash killed the pilot and severely injured the rest. Flair, who was 26 years old then, suffered a back injury and was told that he would not be able to wrestle ever again.

Flair, however, decided not to give up and underwent a lot of physical therapy to be able to get back on his feet. His efforts paid off and he was back in the ring within a year of the accident.

On his return, he wrestled Wahoo McDaniel in February 1976. But the accident compelled him to change his wrestling style and had to give up on his power brawling techniques.

On July 29, 1977, Ric Flair won the ‘NWA United States Heavyweight Championship’ after defeating Bobo Brazil. Over the next three years, Flair regained the championship five times against opponents such as Ricky Steamboat, Roddy Piper, Mr. Wrestling, Jimmy Snuka and Greg Valentine.

In 1978, he was pitted against the original ‘Nature Boy’ Buddy Rodgers. In order to fuel his rivalry with Rodgers, Flair started calling himself ‘The Nature Boy’ and the nickname stuck with him thereafter.

Flair beat Dusty Rhodes to win his first ‘NWA World Heavyweight Championship’ on September 17, 1981. He became the face of NWA with his blonde hair, bejeweled robes, expensive jewelry, and designer suits.

He then developed his own unique style of taunting opponents by shouting “Woooo!” during a match which eventually became his trademark.

Flair held the championship belt for over two years before losing it to Dusty Rhodes on July 26, 1986, at The Great American Bash.

In early 1985, Ric Flair along with the tag team of Ole Anderson and Arn Anderson launched attacks against Rhodes. A few weeks later, they were joined by Tully Blanchard and together they formed the group named ‘Four Horsemen’. This villainous alliance was created to become a formidable force by destroying NWA’s crowd favorites and capturing all the main titles.

Over the years, Four Horsemen saw several changes with several members joining and quitting the group. Flair and Arn Anderson were the only two permanent members on the group which saw the addition of wrestlers such as Lex Luger, Barry Windham, Sting, Sid Vicious, Paul Roma, Brian Pillman, Chris Benoit, Jeff Jarrett, Steve McMichael, Curt Hennig, and Dean Malenko.

In early 1991, WCW president Jim Herd suggested Flair undergo a look change and adopt the new name ‘Spartacus’. Flair refused to follow the suggestion which prompted Herd to fire him and strip him of the NCW championship.

Flair joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in August 1991. He initially appeared with the ‘Big Gold Belt’ calling himself ‘The Real World Heavyweight Champion’ and went on to challenge WWF stars such as Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan.

Flair won his first WWF Championship on January 19, 1992, by defeating 29 other wrestlers in the Royal Rumble match. He eventually lost his championship to Bret Hart on October 12, 1992.

After his short stint at WWF, Flair returned to WCW February 1993 as the new face of the brand. He won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship after defeating Barry Windham at Beach Blast. However, he held onto the belt for a very short period as WCW left the NWA in September 1993.

In June 1994, Flair became the unified WCW International World Heavyweight and the WCW World Champion by defeating Sting.

Flair also became the flag bearer of the ‘New World Order’ in late 1996 and remained so throughout 1997. He and his fellow Horsemen took on wrestling biggies such as Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Hulk Hogan.

Ric Flair won the WCW World Championship twice during 2000 till the company was taken over by WWF in 2001.

Flair then took a short break from wrestling and returned to WWF in November 2001. As per the storyline, Flair was the on-camera co-owner of WWF after Shane and Stephanie sold their stock in the company to him. He eventually lost his on-camera ownership to Vince McMahon.

In 2003, Flair joined the ‘Evolution’ comprising of WWE superstars, Triple H, Randy Orton, and Dave Batista. Along with Batista, Flair won the World Tag Team Championship twice in 2003 and 2004.

Flair was inducted into WWE Hall of Fame March 29, 2008, and was the first active wrestler to be inducted into the Hall Of Fame.

He retired from wrestling on March 30, 2008, after losing a match to Shawn Micheals at WrestleMania XXIV in Orlando, Florida. However, he does make occasional appearances in WWE especially to support his daughter Ashley who goes by the ring name ‘Charlotte’.

Ric Flair is the only two-time inductee of the WWE ‘Hall of Fame’. The first time he was inducted with the class of 2008 for his contribution to wrestling as an individual wrestler and the second time in 2012 as one of the members of the team ‘The Four Horsemen’.

Net Worth of Ric Flair

The Memphis, Tennessee born wrestler who was raised in Edina, Minnesota by his adoptive parents has certainly seen good times in his career. With several victorious bouts under his belt, there is no doubt that Ric Flair has been well rewarded, his net worth was estimated to be $5 million.

Personal Life of Ric Flair

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Outside of the ring, Flair has a long list of spouses he married and divorced at various times in his career. He first married Leslie Goodman on August 28, 1971. Together the couple had two children Megan and David. The legally couple parted way in 1983 after being together for 12 years.

In the same year on August 27, 1983, He married Elizabeth Harrell. The couple had two children together Ashley and Reid. Elizabeth even appeared on WCW on several occasions. The couple, however, separated in 2006.

On 27 May 2006, He married Tiffany VanDemark. But their marriage was short-lived and their divorce was finalized in 2009.

Following the same trend, He went on to marry his fourth wife in the same year as his divorce with VanDemark. He tied the knot with Jacqueline "Jackie" Beems on November 11. However, this marriage too did not last long and the couple officially separated in 2014.

Later, he got engaged to his girlfriend Wendy Barlow in July 2016 and married on September 12, 2018, at a resort in Florida.

Body Measurements of Rich Flair

Observing her body, Ric Flair stands at a height of 6 feet 1 inch upon which he weighs 110 kg. Similarly, he has a pair of blue eyes and blonde hair color. His other body information will be updated soon.

Did You Know?

He has been a world champion 21 times.

He was adopted at the age of three weeks and while he mentions in his autobiography that his birth surname varies from Phillips to Demaree to Stewart on various documents, his birth first name appears to have been Fred.